A concern, which many law enforcement, armed forces, or security personnel may encounter during a firearm confrontation, is the inability to determine with certainty when the load of ammunition in a firearm is running low in order to reload timely.
At the lack of an adequate weapon discharge reporting system that would provide crucial life preserving information to the user, currently adopted procedures in place, if any, are purely intuitive, and are acquired by training relying mostly on the user's state of mind.
At any point of a never desired but possible confrontational firing event, the inevitable strain imposed by such circumstances, ends up making it extremely difficult for the user to keep a mental record of his ammunition consumption.
Opting to replace a spent magazine is therefore turned into a hit and miss activity; a still partially loaded clip is sometimes wastefully dropped and replaced for a new one in the attempt of not being caught on empty.
It is widely known and accepted that human beings under stressful situations react more consistently when conditioned to respond to a sensorial reference than to an adopted routine that implies analytical thought and comparison into a memorized data.
Habitual conditioned reactions are for every person that drives a motor vehicle in a city provided with traffic signals, to stop on a red light, and to go on a green one. The same applies to a flashing light form a barricade that calls for caution and a reduced speed, as a yellow traffic light would prompt said driver to prepare to stop before a change to red or prepare to advance when changing to green in a traffic signal.
Other prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,052,138, 5,142,805, 5,592,769 and 6,094,850 disclose structures that include means to track the ammunition depletion process by closed loop monitoring the weapon's magazine or the magazine well utilizing a plurality of switches or contacts remotely wired from the tracking means hence requiring a much more complex fixed adaptation to the frame of the weapon. In the case of a residual count numerical display, the depletion process as reported could be very hard to view under certain circumstances and calls for some degree of analytical perception that could simply not be available under stress.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,850 utilizes an illuminated report at the very last portion of the load were it doesn't aid the user as a trailing signalization in the process of depletion of the ammunition load and requires a complex mechanical assembly to detect the process of ammunition expenditure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,486 discloses an inertial detector also with a numerical display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,730 discloses a dual detecting means including sound and also inertial switch event reports to the tracking means, and the display is also numerical and mounted on the grip and U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,968 discloses a pistol also with a dual event detecting means built specifically into the weapon frame, based on said frame undergoing distortion, it is aimed only for usage record keeping, and does not include a per load tracking capability.
All of the abovementioned are in one or another way different and less practical to be retrofitted into an existing weapon, as it will be disclosed in this application.
This application makes reference to my prior patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,070 titled Illuminated Gun Sight and Low Ammunition Warning System For Firearms filed on 1996.
In this specification, a battery operated electronic firing event detecting, tracking and signaling system with the purpose of signaling a user about a low ammunition condition being reached was disclosed.
Among others, the possibility that this signaling means could be a visible indicator, and the possibility of utilizing multiple signal means that could be triggered at different count events was also disclosed in claims 38, 47, 51, and 52.
This application is in part an advanced detecting and tracking assembly and method supporting the Low Ammunition Warning System portion disclosed on said application and additionally an event time and date recording assembly.
A device capable of reliably reporting the ammunition depletion process on a weapon is of evident tactical value for improving the safety of either members of the military forces or members or the police departments. In the event a confrontation may arise, they will have a simple referential indicator to help them take safe action for reloading or for better management of their critical ammunition resources.